.Robert Glasper

Double Booked

Keyboardist Robert Glasper definitely didn’t start the J Dilla
craze, but it’s a pretty safe bet he was the first jazz musician to put
Dilla’s beats in trio form. Not to mention he was one of the first
bandleaders to actually make the hip-hop-jazz thing palatable to a
hip-hop audience and successfully navigate both words. Now, with
everyone and their mom trying to unseat him, Glasper’s having trouble
topping himself. His new album, Double Booked, is an
ostentatious attempt to highlight both sides of his musical persona:
One half features the trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer
Chris Dave; the other half is the Experiment, a hip-hop combo with
Casey Benjamin on saxes and vocoder, electric bassist Derrick Hodge,
R&B vocalist Bilal (who cameos on “All Matter” and “Open Mind”),
rapper Mos Def (who raps for about 37 seconds on “4Eva”), DJ Jahi
Sundance (on “Open Mind”), and Dave, again, on drums. Answering-machine
drops from Terence Blanchard and ?uestlove serve as additional
signifiers to tie the theme together.

But for that one Mos Def track (wasted space), it actually works.
The success of Double Booked is due largely to Glasper’s
creativity. Trained as a gospel pianist but refined in New York City’s
New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he has a real downtown
sound but keeps a lot of blues licks in his arsenal. Sometimes the
homegrown gospel side comes through — as on the aptly named “Yes
I’m Country (And That’s OK)” — but for the most part, Glasper
skews contemporary. He’s actually more sedate on this recording than in
his live shows, until you get to “Think of One,” a rather challenging
interpretation of an old Thelonious Monk tune.

The real payoff of Double Booked is Glasper’s backup.
Benjamin is a terrific saxophonist, but his vocoder sounds even better.
Dave is one of the tightest drummers in the game. As a unit, they’re
sensational. (Blue Note)

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